Vice President Joe Biden administers the Senate oath of office to Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., as his mother Frances Scott, holds a bible, during a mock swearing in ceremony in the Old Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Sen. Tim Scott: We Want Clarity and Moral Authority From Our President

Sen. Tim Scott, the Senate’s only African-American Republican, during an interview with VICE News on Thursday, condemned neo-Nazis and white supremacists and joined the beat down on President Donald J. Trump’s comments on last weekend’s “alt-right”/”alt-left” hate riot at Charlottesville saying, what we want to see from our President is clarity and moral authority and that moral authority is compromised:

SEN. SCOTT: I am not going to defend the indefensible. I’m not here to do that. I’m here to be clear, and to be concise and succinct. His comments on Monday were strong. His comments on Tuesday started erasing the comments that were strong. What we want to see from our president is clarity and moral authority. And that moral authority is compromised when Tuesday happens. There’s no question about that. We should all call that on the carpet. I certainly have.

INTERVIEWER: So does the president have moral authority now?

SEN. SCOTT: I think he has it. He’s losing a part of it.

INTERVIEWER: He has it? You think so?

SEN. SCOTT: Also — he’s, we elected him as President so there’s no question that we gave him moral authority. The problem is that in this situation, in the last three or four days, what we’ve seen is that moral authority being compromised by the lack of clarity, by what we have seen as the, a pivot backwards, which is very unsettling for many Americans, to include me.

Scott also said that he would continue to work with Trump when they agree and speak out when he disagrees with the President.

You can watch a video of the interview below (the excerpted passage begins about 1:20 mark):